Suicide note and weapons found when police searched the Nashville shooter’s home, warrant shows

Editor’s note: (If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please call the Suicide and Crisis Line at 988 to be connected to a trained counselor or visit 988lifeline.org.)

(CNN) Investigators found a suicide note when they executed a search warrant at the home of the gunman who killed six people at a Nashville school last week, along with more guns and ammunition, according to an inventory of seized items.

The search warrant and list of items found were released Tuesday, just over a week after the shooter, former student Audrey Hale, opened fire at The Covenant School, killing three 9-year-olds and three adults.

The warrant, executed the same day as the shooting, says authorities also found several Covenant School yearbooks and a school photograph, in addition to the shooter’s journals. Some of the magazines are described as related to “school shootings; firearms courses,” the list shows.

According to the list, a total of 47 items were seized.

Hale, 28, fired 152 rounds in the attack, which was planned “over a period of months,” police said in a news release Monday. Hale “considered the actions of other mass murderers,” that statement said, and “acted completely alone.”

Hale, who police said was under care for an emotional disorder, had legally purchased seven guns and hid them in the home, Nashville Police Chief John Drake previously said.

Hale was armed with three guns during the attack, which ended after Nashville officers arrived on the scene and confronted the gunman.

Two officers opened fire — a moment captured on body camera footage later released by police — and killed Hale at 10:27 a.m., 14 minutes after the gunman entered the private Christian school, according to the police spokesman. of Nashville, Don Aaron.

Police are still working to determine a motive for the attack, but they previously said that notes left behind by Hale — which continue to be reviewed by police and the FBI — made it clear it was “calculated and planned.”

Hale targeted the school and Covenant Presbyterian Church, to which the school is attached, police said, but the victims are believed to have been shot randomly.

Metro Nashville Police and FBI agents search a home following a mass shooting at The Covenant School on March 27 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Those victims were Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, all 9, as well as school custodian Mike Hill, 61, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60, who was the school’s principal.

The school shooting — the deadliest since 21 people, including 19 children, were killed at a school in Uvalde, Texas, last May — renewed debate over the scourge of American gun violence, access to firearms and school safety , a fight that erupted in the state legislature this week.

Tennessee House Republicans took steps Monday toward expelling three Democratic state representatives who participated in protests at the state Capitol last Thursday calling for more gun control in the wake of the deadly mass shooting.

According to The Tennessean, a vote is scheduled for Thursday on whether to expel the three members, Reps. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis.

Separately, officials plan to recognize Nashville police for their quick response to the shooting during a regularly scheduled meeting of the Nashville Metropolitan Council Tuesday night, Jim Shulman, the council’s vice president, told CNN.

The meeting will begin with a powerful song honoring the victims of the school shooting, according to Shulman, and the city plans to thank the officers for their response.